ADB appoints Xiaoqin Fan as new country director for Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Monday appointed Xiaoqin (Emma) Fan as new country director for Pakistan and officially assumed her office as the Pakistan Resident Mission.

As country director, Fan will oversee ADB’s operations in Pakistan, including the implementation of the country partnership strategy (CPS) that prioritises lifting growth, increasing resilience, and boosting competitiveness. She will also lead the consultation for the new CPS covering the period from 2026 to 2030.

She has replaced Young Ye as ADB’s Country Director to Pakistan. Ye was appointed in 2012. Following officially assuming her duties she said, “I am delighted to be back in Pakistan to lead the country office. I look forward to promoting ADB’s longstanding partnership with the government and people of Pakistan”.

Fan added, “ADB will continue to work closely with Pakistan’s federal and provincial governments, the private sector, and other stakeholders to speed-up economic recovery, implement reforms, and champion policies and development processes to create jobs. We’ll scale up our support for climate resilience, private sector development, and institutional development; and we will continue to foster livable cities, rural development, digital ecosystems, growth centres, and regional cooperation and integration.”

A national of New Zealand, Fan holds a Doctorate in Economics from the Australian National University, and Master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Lanzhou University in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). She has more than 30 years of professional experience, including 22 years in ADB.

Fan joined ADB in June 2002 as an Economist, and since then has held positions of increasing responsibility in various departments across the bank. In December 2013, she was appointed as Advisor for ADB’s Strategic Planning Department (SPD) and the Head of its Results Management Unit. In June 2016, she was appointed as the Regional Director of ADB’s Pacific Liaison and Coordination Office (PLCO) and in 2019 as Director for Public Management, Financial Sector, and Regional Cooperation Division of the East Asia Department.

Following the introduction of ADB’s New Operating Model in June 2023, Fan was re-designated as Director, Finance in Sector Group-Finance, where she had been successfully building the pipeline for the finance sector, strategically leading the sovereign-non-sovereign collaborations involving multiple ADB corporative initiatives. As Country Director for Pakistan, Fan succeeds Yong Ye who held the post from 2021.

Prior to joining ADB, Fan worked as a Policy Adviser at the Department of Finance and Administration in Australia, an Economist at the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research in New Zealand, and a Researcher at Lanzhou University in the PRC.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 69 members—49 from the region.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024